Continuous manufacturing systems and processes for pre-cooking or cooking bacon are known. Exemplary systems include microwave ovens that cook sliced bacon positioned on a first conveyor belt for a sufficient time to obtain desired properties, e.g., a selected doneness. The cooked bacon slices are then often transferred from the first conveyor belt to sheet of paper via a bacon sheeter. The bacon sheeter, for example an American Machine Products 2000-C bacon sheeter, transfers a plurality of the slices from the first conveyor belt onto a sheet of paper positioned on a second conveyor belt. Transfer means, such as wheels or belts, of the sheeter transfer the bacon slices from the first conveyor belt to a first end of a product transfer comb. For example, wheels in the American Machine Products 2000-C bacon sheeter rotate on a motor-driven axle (e.g., at about 28 revolutions per minute) and quickly move cooked or pre-cooked bacon slices across the product transfer comb, from the first end of the comb at the end of the first conveyor belt to a second end of the comb and feeds the cooked slices onto the sheet of paper positioned on the second conveyor belt. It is important that the sheeter maintain accurate piece counts and reasonably consistent placement of the bacon slices on the paper at full line speed (e.g., about 250 to 370 slices per minute). The bacon slices and paper are then transferred via the second conveyor belt to a packaging station.
It is desirable in the art to have bacon slices portioned into two or more approximately equal portions, e.g., for sandwiches. This “portioning” is often done by hand in which conventional, relatively long bacon slices (e.g., about 8.5 inches) are torn into two pieces of shorter length as a sandwich is assembled at a food preparation station. Conventional methods of portioning bacon slices in connection with cooking bacon include: (i) using a band saw to cut the raw pork bellies prior to slicing and cooking (so that the raw bacon slices are already about half the length of a conventional bacon slice before cooking and sheeting), and (ii) using pinch-type cutters to cut cooked bacon slices after placement on paper sheets, e.g., using a press that pinches the bacon and paper sheet to cut the bacon, but does not pinch through the paper sheet. These methods, however, have been proven to be labor intensive, expensive, imprecise, and/or slow (e.g., lower production rates).